It's a generally defeatist attitude that fuels the continued existence of what most people do not desire. Believing that privacy is "dead" is giving into the notion that you have no privacy, and that peace is found by coming to terms with that fact, thus giving them no fight whatsoever, allowing their harassment to go unchecked. Sadly, if you're one of the few who actually possess the will to resist this intrusion, it takes extra effort on your part to return to a sense of normalcy, where you can go about common routines without having to devote extra work just to keep the machine oiled. In this particular instance, you need to jailbreak your device, install apps that thwart their efforts to collect your information, and keep active on your phone so as to make sure everything is in fine, working order, and your privacy and information are protected.

I don't know about you Whyt151, or anyone else here for that matter, but it's worth it to me.

No, peace is found by living a life that does not require the need for privacy.

I have to disagree with that statement. In today's world you have to protect your privacy at all costs. There are things that go 'bump' in the night that you should protect yourself from. It took 7 months of banging my head up against a wall to get some fraudulent charges removed from my account and credit bureau report. The best part of it all was being made to feel like I was trying to get out of something that should have never happened at all.

I have to disagree with that statement. In today's world you have to protect your privacy at all costs. There are things that go 'bump' in the night that you should protect yourself from. It took 7 months of banging my head up against a wall to get some fraudulent charges removed from my account and credit bureau report. The best part of it all was being made to feel like I was trying to get out of something that should have never happened at all.

That's exactly it!
I don't want ANY fawking ads on any of my devices and I especially hate any and all attempts at "tailoring" ads to my supposed "interests". When I want to buy something I research it and make an informed decision. That's how I bought my DSL camera, my watch, my phone, my car, etc. Ads have never ever influenced my buying decisions and will never do so. They mean absolutely nothing to me as they reflect nothing of the true quality of whatever they are trying to sell, they are nothing but a nuisance.
Privacy is not dead it's just takes time and effort to cover your tracks as much as possible.

You say you don't want any ads and a few lines later you say that buying your phone was an "researched and informed decision".
FAIL.

On the other note, some apps require to obtain data (like googlemaps) and third party does not necessarily mean "some other f-ing data-collective company". It can be a part of larger network with distinctive name.

Login/pass is obvious as well. How can you connect with you profile somewhere, where you need to login without sending such data?

More to it, i understand that they (obviously cuz they are lame lazy bas--rds) use phone UID as a unique identifier of the client, which is, by the way very convenient form of identification.

What is disturbing, is collecting/sending your location/other data, where it is not required for the app to work, and obviously collecting any your personal (i don't care if it is for demographical or any other reasons) information.

LittleSnitch-like app would provide a certain level of protection, but, yee, man, do every iphone user knows what ports/protocols to block? Geeky ppl will find such app useful, but the majority will not even know WHY EVEN use it, much less HOW.

I would say we should all complain to the FCC but they just rolled over on net neutrality and are owned by the cell phone providers. We need the hacker community to provide solutions, I have no problem paying for something that would help combat this.

I don't drink kool-Aid, I don't join cults.
This is why I break out in cold sweat going to Apple retail store.

I work in the digital ad space and I can explain what this is all about: conversion tracking

Advertisers who spend thousands upon thousands of dollars advertising their apps within other apps want to be able to track purchases through the App Store that result from their investment. The only way to do this is UDID right now. Apple holds the keys to change this.

It's typically apps that include advertising that engage in this practice. I'm not sure if you use "Pandora One" service if that precludes you from advertising on the mobile device as well but that doesn't mean they still don't collect UDID data.

No, it is not about tracking WHO YOU ARE and matching that up to what you do. It's just for tracking ad investment. Cookies work on the PC (laptops/desktops) but not as well in the mobile OS space when you are limited to purchases that go through Apple's gates.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are Jailbroken apps that engage in the same practice but at the same time, I don't really care. Apple has all of this information on you anyway and it's tied to your name, address and credit card #. They track what apps you purchase, when you un-install them and also have access to the data on your device and can wipe it at anytime if they choose. Don't be too upset with Pandora or MySpace or whichever app dev is engaging in this practice, point your frustration at Apple who setup the system to enable this behavior.

Also, for those wondering why they are sending out your geo-location it's for geographic targeting. Say I my client only has locations in California. Well, I want to make sure my ads don't serve anywhere outside of California. Geo-location via mobile allows this. IP-address targeting is how it's typically done on the PC.

And to the people who say that ads don't contribute to any of your purchase behavior...have you ever gone to google and typed something like "Nikon D80" and seen a sponsored result that says $100 off? If that was the best price you could get then what is so wrong with that advertisement? It's targeted to your interest (you typed Nikon D80) and provides you value at no extra cost to you.

Yes, 99% of advertising does suck. I won't argue that. But, there are times when it's helpful. I saved over $100 this year on my Christmas shopping by seeking out coupon codes and free shipping deals which were promoted through advertising.

In case nobody was aware of this, sites have been tracking your IP and your browsing history for as long as internet marketing has been around on your desktop/laptop so all this is is guerilla marketing techniques using your mobile phone. There isn't any harm and they still don't know who you are so its not like someone can do something malicious with this data. The data is pretty ambiguous by identification standards. Unique phone ID is the only one I'm concerned about and the reason your password/id gets sent is because you are logging in. Its not like they are caching your id/pw to hack your account later.

I especially like this quote from the WSJ article, "Apple limits what can be installed on an iPhone by requiring iPhone apps to be offered exclusively through its App Store. Apple reviews those apps for function, offensiveness and other criteria."

How many of you want to bet that the apps we download from Cydia are probably safer than the junk that gets approved through the app store?

How many of you want to bet that the apps we download from Cydia are probably safer than the junk that gets approved through the app store?

Exactly. It's like I said before, only jailbroken devices can install PrivaCy, FirewallIP, etc. Come to think of it, considering Apple's grand interest in this whole ad scheme (as juvenile as that sounds), it's completely obvious now why you can only find I/O control apps on Cydia, as they circumvent the very operations Apple allow to generate more revenue.

You say you don't want any ads and a few lines later you say that buying your phone was an "researched and informed decision".
FAIL.

Are you obtuse on purpose? Do you know what "research" means?
In my world it isn't looking at ads and choosing the flashiest/funniest/cutest shite they put in front of me.
It means reading product reviews, specs, people's personal experiences and opinions, putting them all together and come to a conclusion as to what would be the best choice.
Then I weigh that against my personal needs, desires, thickness of wallet and go out and buy the best I can afford.
It has nothing to do with ads whatsoever.
Watching some airhead actor/actress/singer/TV personality etc hawking a product that he/she gets paid to say good things about means nothing to me. Your mileage may vary.
I, just like many other people I suspect, have become very good at focusing only on the information on a webpage that I need and completely ignore the rest of the page so ads never get clicked on or read by me.
As a matter of fact and it is kinda bad news for modmyi, I have never ever clicked on any of the links that come up when I read this very page. Or any other page during my online escapades.

And just to show you how annoying it is, I live in Japan and many times these farking search engines put Japanese ads on the page when I search for something assuming that since my IP address indicates that I am in Japan I must be served Japanese ads. Or bloody Google takes me to their Japanese search page and it also annoyes the hell out of me.
Do not think for me, I will do the thinking, fawk them all.